From disaster risk construction to disaster risk reduction: exploring the agency of urban land-use planning in Chile

Abstract

This paper explores how the existing urban land-use regulatory framework and its associated planning practices in Chile have contributed to disaster risk construction in urban areas. It uses Actor Network Theory as an analytical framework, and in-depth interviews and focus groups to analyse the existing urban land-use regulatory framework and its innovation process. Drawing on the knowledges and perception of practitioners, and the revision of a case study, the paper unpacks the agency of the existing urban land-use regulatory framework in enhancing disaster risk, and how its rigidity and the obstacles for its modification, prevents the advance towards disaster risk reduction.